L.A.S MEDIA HOUSE

Monday, 22 September 2014

Court asked to nullify INEC’s new 30,027 polling units

A
Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has been asked to nullify the
30,027 new polling units recently created by the Independent National
Electoral Commission, INEC.
The plaintiffs, Ikogi Joseph Odumegwu Chinedu and Omotoso Nicholas
wanted the court to restrain INEC from giving effect to the new polling
units.
Joined in the suit as codefendant is the office of the Attorney General of the Federation.
The plaintiffs through their counsel, Dr Olukayode Olatoke, SAN is
asking the court to determined six pertinent questions bothering on the
legality of the new polling units recently announced by INEC.
INEC and the AGF have yet to respond to the suit which was filed on September 10, 2014.
The plaintiffs asked the court to declare that INEC acted beyond its
power under section 73 (1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution when it
created the new polling units.
They argued that a fresh national population census had to be
conducted before new polling units could be created and that since no
such census was conducted, the new polling units were illegally created.
Plaintiffs also asked the court to declare that: “The act of INEC in
creating more polling units for the northern part of Nigeria in utter
neglect of the southern part is discriminatory and against the express
provision of section 42 (1) (b) of the 1999 constitution.”
In an affidavit filed in support of the originating summons, the
first plaintiff, Joseph said that INEC without any basis increased the
number of polling units from 119,973 to 150,000 and arbitrarily
allocated same to various states.
He stated that INEC, without justification, discriminatorily
allocated 24,386 polling units to the north out of the 30,027 polling
units and allocated the remaining 5,641 to the southern part of the
country.
It was also averred that with the new polling units’ distribution,
the 20 states in the north would have 83,607 polling units while the 17
states in the south were allocated 66,393 units.
Joseph said that there was no justification or any development to the
voting regime in the northern part to justify that astrological
increase to give advantage of about 14,000 polling units over the south.
Meanwhile, a group, Nigeria For Change, NFC, at the weekend said the
additional polling units created by INEC were structural rigging.
The group said this in Ibadan while speaking with journalists during
the meeting of its Board of Trustees, BoT, at the residence of Ibadan
High Chief, Senator Lekan Balogun.
Balogun, the Chairman of the BoT and a chieftain of the Peoples
Democratic Party PDP, lamented that “apart from the fact that the
figures upon which the exercise was based was fraudulent, it will go a
long way in distorting the statistics of the National Planning
Commission, thereby making future planning difficult and actual
population of the regions difficult to get”.
He carpeted the educated elites who are given trust for compromising
and allowing selfish interest to override and defeat genuine purpose of
their being called to serve.
Balogun said that the view had nothing to do with his being a member
of a political party, noting that “what is happening has nothing to do
with any political party in particular, everybody is guilty and
depending on which side of divide you may find yourself.”
When asked about the future of the country in view of the attitude of
the Nigerian youths seems to be at variance with the desired change,
the Ibadan High Chief put the blame at the door-steps of the leaders and
elders.
He insisted that “there are too many bad leaders who are serving as
examples to the youths and younger generation, which accounts for the
various unwholesome characters displayed by youths in the country”.
A member of the BoT, Mr. Tunde Olayiwola, added that the
non-political group “is out to steer change in the attitude of middle
and upper class in the society as they are often excluded in various
government programmes, yet they pay more taxes to the government.”